Numbers 19 - 20, Romans 5, Psalm 98 — Legacy Standard Bible

Statute of the Red Heifer

19Then Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron, saying, ²“This is the statute of the law which Yahweh has commanded, saying, ‘Speak to the sons of Israel that they take to you a ^ared heifer without blemish, in which is no defect and ^bon which a yoke has never ¹been placed. ³‘And you shall give it to ^aEleazar the priest, and it shall ^bbe brought outside the camp and be slaughtered in his presence. ⁴‘Next Eleazar the priest shall take some of its blood with his finger and ^asprinkle some of its blood toward the front of the tent of meeting seven times. ⁵‘Then the heifer shall be burned in his sight; ^aits hide and its flesh and its blood, with its refuse, shall be burned. ⁶‘And the priest shall take ^acedar wood and hyssop and scarlet material and cast it into the midst of the ¹burning heifer. ⁷‘The priest ^ashall then wash his clothes and bathe his ¹body in water and afterward come into the camp, but the priest shall be unclean until evening. ⁸‘The one who burns it shall also wash his clothes in water and bathe his ¹body in water and shall be unclean until evening. ⁹‘Now a man who is clean shall gather up the ashes of the heifer and deposit them outside the camp in a clean place, and ¹the congregation of the sons of Israel shall keep it as ^awater to remove impurity; it is ²purification from sin. ¹⁰‘And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer ^ashall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening; and it shall be a perpetual statute to the sons of Israel and to the sojourner who sojourns among them.

¹¹‘^aThe one who touches the corpse of any ¹person shall be unclean for seven days. ¹²‘That one shall ^apurify himself from uncleanness with ¹the water on the third day and on the seventh day, and then he will be clean; but if he does not purify himself on the third day and on the seventh day, he will not be clean. ¹³‘^aAnyone who touches a corpse, the ¹body of a man who has died, and does not purify himself, ²^,^bmakes the ³tabernacle of Yahweh unclean; and that person shall be cut off from Israel. Because the water for impurity was not ⁴^,^csplashed on him, he shall be unclean; his uncleanness is still on him.

¹⁴‘This is the law when a man dies in a tent: everyone who comes into the tent and everyone who is in the tent shall be unclean for seven days. ¹⁵‘And every open vessel, which has no covering ¹tied down on it, shall be unclean. ¹⁶‘^aAlso, anyone who in the open field touches one who has been slain with a sword or who has died naturally, or a human bone or a grave, shall be unclean for seven days. ¹⁷‘Then for the unclean person they shall take some of the ¹ashes of the ²burnt ³^,^apurification from sin and ⁴flowing water shall be ⁵added to them in a vessel. ¹⁸‘And a clean person shall take hyssop and dip it in the water and sprinkle it on the tent and on all the furnishings and on the persons who were there and on the one who touched the bone or the one slain or the one dying naturally or the grave. ¹⁹‘Then the clean person ^ashall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day and on the seventh day; and on the seventh day he shall purify him from uncleanness, and he shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and shall be clean by evening.

²⁰‘But the man who is unclean and does not purify himself from uncleanness, that person shall be cut off from the midst of the assembly because he has ¹^,^amade the sanctuary of Yahweh unclean; the water for impurity has not been ²splashed on him; he is unclean. ²¹‘So it shall be a perpetual statute for them. And he ^awho sprinkles the water for impurity shall wash his clothes, and he who touches the water for impurity shall be unclean until evening. ²²‘^aFurthermore, anything that the unclean person touches shall be unclean; and the person who touches it shall be unclean until evening.’”

No Water for the Congregation

20Then the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to the ^awilderness of Zin in the first month; and the people stayed at Kadesh. And Miriam died there and was buried there.

²^aNow there was no water for the congregation, ^band they assembled themselves against Moses and Aaron. ³^aThe people thus contended with Moses and spoke, saying, “^bIf only we had breathed our last ^cwhen our brothers breathed their last before Yahweh! ⁴“^aWhy then have you brought the assembly of Yahweh into this wilderness, for us and our beasts to die ¹here? ⁵“And why have you made us come up from Egypt, to bring us into this evil place? ^aIt is not a place of ¹grain or figs or vines or pomegranates, nor is there water to drink.” ⁶Then Moses and Aaron came in from the presence of the assembly to the doorway of the tent of meeting and ^afell on their faces. Then the glory of Yahweh appeared to them; ⁷and Yahweh spoke to Moses, saying, ⁸“Take ^athe rod; and you and your brother Aaron assemble the congregation and speak to the rock before their eyes, that it may yield its water. You shall thus bring forth water for them out of the rock and let the congregation and their beasts drink.”

Moses Strikes the Rock

⁹So Moses took the rod ^afrom before Yahweh, just as He had commanded him; ¹⁰and Moses and Aaron gathered the assembly before the rock. And he said to them, “^aListen now, you rebels; shall we bring forth water for you out of this rock?” ¹¹Then Moses raised high his hand and struck the rock twice with his rod; and ^awater came forth abundantly, and the congregation and their beasts drank. ¹²But Yahweh said to Moses and Aaron, “^aBecause you did not believe Me, to treat Me as holy in the sight of the sons of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land which I have given them.” ¹³Those were the waters of ¹^,^aMeribah ²because the sons of Israel contended with Yahweh, and He proved Himself holy among them.

Edom Refuses Passage

¹⁴From Kadesh Moses then sent messengers to ^athe king of Edom: “Thus your brother Israel has said, ‘You ^bknow all the hardship that has befallen us, ¹⁵that our fathers went down to Egypt, and we stayed in Egypt a long time, and the Egyptians treated us and our fathers badly. ¹⁶‘So ^awe cried out to Yahweh, and He heard our voice and sent ^ban angel and brought us out from Egypt; now behold, we are at Kadesh, a town on the edge of your territory. ¹⁷‘Please ^alet us pass through your land. We will not pass through field or through vineyard; we will not even drink water from a well. We will go along the king’s highway; we will not turn to the right or to the left until we pass through your territory.’”

¹⁸^aEdom, however, said to him, “You shall not pass through ¹us, lest I come out to meet you with the sword.” ¹⁹Again, the sons of Israel said to him, “We will go up by the highway, and if I and ^amy livestock do drink any of your water, ^bthen I will ¹pay its price. Let me only pass through on my feet, ²nothing else.” ²⁰But he said, “^aYou shall not pass through.” And Edom came out to meet him with a heavy ¹force and with a strong hand. ²¹^aThus Edom refused to allow Israel to pass through his territory; ^bso Israel turned away from him.

²²Then they set out from ^aKadesh, and the sons of Israel, the whole congregation, came to Mount Hor.

The Death of Aaron

²³And Yahweh spoke to Moses and Aaron at ^aMount Hor by the border of the land of Edom, saying, ²⁴“Aaron will be ^agathered to his people, for he shall not enter the land which I have given to the sons of Israel because ^byou rebelled against My ¹command at the waters of Meribah. ²⁵“Take Aaron and his son ^aEleazar and bring them up to Mount Hor; ²⁶and strip Aaron of his garments and put them on his son Eleazar. So Aaron will be ^agathered to his people and will die there.” ²⁷So Moses did just as Yahweh had commanded, and they went up to Mount Hor in the sight of all the congregation. ²⁸And Moses stripped Aaron of his garments and ^aput them on his son Eleazar, and ^bAaron died there on the mountain top. Then Moses and Eleazar came down from the mountain. ²⁹So all the congregation saw that Aaron breathed his last, and all the house of Israel wept for Aaron thirty ^adays.

Results of Justification by Faith

5^aTherefore, having been justified by faith, ¹^,^bwe have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, ²through whom also we have ^aobtained our introduction by faith into this grace ^bin which we stand; and ¹we boast in hope of the glory of God. ³^aAnd not only this, but ¹we also ^bboast in our afflictions, knowing that affliction brings about ^cperseverance; ⁴and ^aperseverance, ^bproven character; and proven character, hope; ⁵and hope ^adoes not put to shame, because the love of God has been ^bpoured out within our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us.

⁶For while we were still ^aweak, ^bat the right time ^cChrist died for the ungodly. ⁷For one will hardly die for a righteous man, ¹though perhaps for the good man someone would dare even to die. ⁸But God ^ademonstrates ^bHis own love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners, ^cChrist died for us. ⁹Much more then, having now been justified ¹^,^aby His blood, we shall be saved ^bfrom the wrath of God through Him. ¹⁰For if while we were ^aenemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, much more, having been reconciled, we shall be saved ¹^,^bby His life. ¹¹^aAnd not only this, ¹but we also boast in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have now received ^bthe reconciliation.

The Gift of Righteousness in Christ

¹²Therefore, just as through ^aone man sin entered into the world, and ^bdeath through sin, and ^cso death spread to all men, because all sinned— ¹³for ¹until the Law sin was in the world, but ^asin is not imputed when there is no law. ¹⁴Nevertheless death reigned from Adam until Moses, even over those who had not sinned ^ain the likeness of the trespass of Adam, who is a ¹^,^btype of Him who was to come.

¹⁵But ¹the gracious gift is not like the transgression. For if by the transgression of ^athe one ^bthe many died, much more did the grace of God and the gift by ^cthe grace of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abound to the many. ¹⁶And the gift is not like that which came through the one who sinned; for on the one hand ^athe judgment arose from one transgression ¹resulting in condemnation, but on the other hand the gracious gift arose from many transgressions ²resulting in justification. ¹⁷For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned ^athrough the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will ^breign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.

¹⁸So then as through ^aone transgression ¹there resulted condemnation to all men, even so through one ^bact of righteousness ²there resulted ^cjustification of life to all men. ¹⁹For as through the one man’s disobedience ^athe many ^bwere appointed sinners, even so through ^cthe obedience of the One ^dthe many will be appointed righteous. ²⁰Now ¹^,^athe Law came in so that the transgression would increase, but where sin increased, ^bgrace abounded all the more, ²¹so that, as ^asin reigned in death, even so ^bgrace would reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Sing to Yahweh a New Song

A Psalm.

Sing to Yahweh a ^anew song,For He has done ^bwondrous deeds,His ^cright hand and His ^dholy arm have ¹worked out His salvation.²^aYahweh has made known His salvation;He has ^brevealed His righteousness in the eyes of the nations.³He has ^aremembered His lovingkindness and His faithfulness to the house of Israel;^bAll the ends of the earth have seen the salvation of our God.⁴^aMake a loud shout to Yahweh, all the earth;^bBreak forth and sing for joy and sing praises.⁵Sing praises to Yahweh with the ^alyre,With the lyre and the ^bsound of singing.⁶With ^atrumpets and the sound of the horn^bMake a loud shout before ^cKing Yahweh.⁷Let the ^asea roar, as well as its fullness,The ^bworld and those who dwell in it.⁸Let the ^arivers clap their hands,Let the ^bmountains sing together for joy⁹Before Yahweh, for He is coming to ^ajudge the earth;He will judge the world with righteousnessAnd ^bthe peoples with ¹equity.